SA declines to comment on planned attacks by nationals held in Pakistan

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s foreign ministry yesterday declined comment on reports that two nationals in Pakistani custody had been planning terror attacks in Johannesburg, saying they would first have to meet the two men.

“At this stage our focus of our intervention is to seek consular access to the South Africans being held in Pakistan,” foreign ministry spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa told AFP. “So far we have not gained consular access due to the fact that the Pakistanis are still debriefing the prisoners and therefore I am unable to comment on the suggestions being made in the media,” he said.A Pakistani security official told AFP in Islamabad yesterday that South Africans Abu Bakar and Zubair Ismail – who were arrested last week in the eastern Pakistani city of Gujrat along with Tanzanian al Qaeda operative Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani – had planned attacks on tourists sites in South Africa’s main city.”They had hatched a plot to carry out terrorist attacks on Johannesburg’s main tourist sites,” he said.Bakar, a doctor, and Ismail, described as new recruits to Osama bin Laden’s terror network, had arrived in Pakistan’s second largest city of Lahore early July, the official said on condition of anonymity.They joined Ghailani in Gujrat, 160 kilometres southeast of Islamabad, and together hid out in a rented house.The house was stormed by police commandos on July 25 and after an eight hour shootout the pair were arrested with Ghailani, his Uzbek wife, three other women and some Pakistani “facilitators”.Maps, foreign currency, computers, computer discs and Arabic-language documents were found in his hideout, another security official said.- Nampa-AFP”So far we have not gained consular access due to the fact that the Pakistanis are still debriefing the prisoners and therefore I am unable to comment on the suggestions being made in the media,” he said.A Pakistani security official told AFP in Islamabad yesterday that South Africans Abu Bakar and Zubair Ismail – who were arrested last week in the eastern Pakistani city of Gujrat along with Tanzanian al Qaeda operative Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani – had planned attacks on tourists sites in South Africa’s main city.”They had hatched a plot to carry out terrorist attacks on Johannesburg’s main tourist sites,” he said.Bakar, a doctor, and Ismail, described as new recruits to Osama bin Laden’s terror network, had arrived in Pakistan’s second largest city of Lahore early July, the official said on condition of anonymity.They joined Ghailani in Gujrat, 160 kilometres southeast of Islamabad, and together hid out in a rented house.The house was stormed by police commandos on July 25 and after an eight hour shootout the pair were arrested with Ghailani, his Uzbek wife, three other women and some Pakistani “facilitators”.Maps, foreign currency, computers, computer discs and Arabic-language documents were found in his hideout, another security official said.- Nampa-AFP